New Design - African Images - in Progress

I recently began working on a new design which is a little different from my previous designs.  In this piece I am trying to create images, just images, of Africa, particularly the birds and their environments.  There are forests, baobab trees, marsh and grasslands, plus feathers and nests.  The stitched size is 8 inches X 11 inches.

The above photo is created by stitching about 1/4 of the design, then I added colored pencils and watercolor pencils to complete the rendering to send as a proposal.  I plan to continue working on this project to have completed in the next few month, so will post a few updates.

To construct the piece, I have used Copic markers for layering the background color and a stencil and acrylic dabbers to add leaves.  There is texture in abundance using lots of Silk Raffia, Painters Thread, plus other perle threads. 

I have to say this is the most fun stitching I have had in a while.  I will be interested to hear what you think,

Terry